I would say it's almost certainly because Belgian and Netherlands authorities are currently investigating them for the gambling element. As nice as it would be to think that all the fuss on Reddit was the main cause of this I just don't see EA giving in that easily when they know they'll still sell 10m+ copies. That said, it is currently sitting at a less than 1 user score on Metacritic, so who knows.

Mantis wrote:I would say it's almost certainly because Belgian and Netherlands authorities are currently investigating them for the gambling element. As nice as it would be to think that all the fuss on Reddit was the main cause of this I just don't see EA giving in that easily when they know they'll still sell 10m+ copies. That said, it is currently sitting at a less than 1 user score on Metacritic, so who knows.

I'm not entirely convinced any government would be looking into it if it wasn't for the public outcry at least bringing the issue into popular consciousness through the media etc (who, while themselves not exactly condemning EA, at least initially, have at least reported the protests).

I'm hoping that this could be the game changer the greedy publishers so desperately need to wake up to just how damaging the business practice actually can be and that when you rile up your consumers there's only going to be one outcome. Failure.

Mantis wrote:I would say it's almost certainly because Belgian and Netherlands authorities are currently investigating them for the gambling element. As nice as it would be to think that all the fuss on Reddit was the main cause of this I just don't see EA giving in that easily when they know they'll still sell 10m+ copies. That said, it is currently sitting at a less than 1 user score on Metacritic, so who knows.

I'm not entirely convinced any government would be looking into it if it wasn't for the public outcry at least bringing the issue into popular consciousness through the media etc (who, while themselves not exactly condemning EA, at least initially, have at least reported the protests).

Oh absolutely that's why the government's are looking into it. I mean that the investigation will probably have been the main influence on EA's decision to switch the MTs off. They've stone walled every criticism and complaint about it so far and given very little ground, news breaks of government's looking into gambling implications and suddenly the entire system is pulled within two days.

I wouldn't be surprised if Disney got wind of the gambling investigations and asked them to pull the plug on it.

Not sure where they got this information from, but the Venturebeat article heavily implies that it was Disney who got on their backs about it.

Earlier today, Electronic Arts chief executive officer Andrew Wilson had a phone call with The Walt Disney Company chief executive Bob Iger about Star Wars: Battlefront II, according to sources familiar with the situation. A few hours after that call, players are finding out that they can no longer make in-game purchases with real money.

Good if Disney did get involved, though again it would have been as a result of all the negativity the SW brand has been getting as a result of this, rather than any sense of altruism. But however it came about, it's a good result that shows kicking up a fuss can still make a difference if enough people do get involved.

The EA cunts wrote:Today, we turned off in-game purchases for #StarWarsBattlefrontII. The game is built on your input, and it will continue to evolve and grow. Read the full update: http://bit.ly/2hyFHce

Translates as:

This has become briefly uncomfortable, so we are forcibly removing ourselves from the limelight. Don't worry though, once all the fuss has died down, two to four weeks tops, the microtransaction cunterama will be right back.

The EA cunts wrote:Today, we turned off in-game purchases for #StarWarsBattlefrontII. The game is built on your input, and it will continue to evolve and grow. Read the full update: http://bit.ly/2hyFHce

Translates as:

This has become briefly uncomfortable, so we are forcibly removing ourselves from the limelight. Don't worry though, once all the fuss has died down, two to four weeks tops, the microtransaction cunterama will be right back.

Also long enough that getting refunds will be harder when they do come back

So funny cause the last battlefront was garbage at release and I was dumb enough to buy it the day it came out. Pretty sure that was one of the last times I fell for their evil tricks. Haven't even considered buying battlefront 2 I hope the game flops hard so someone other then EA makes the next star wars battlefield type game

Not going to happen seeing as EA have the licence and I don't see Disney pulling it from them outside of a really serious catastrophe.

Funnily enough I installed the complete edition of the first game to give it a whirl as it's included on Origin Access. Boy I totally forgot how awful it is. Even now with all the extra content the general gameplay is just so ludicrously vacuous and poor. The second game is definitely a marked improvement, outside of this microtransaction nonsense.